Tourism and Third Sector Organisations—Strangers or Partners?

Abstract

This article is concerned with the third sector (in particular, local development agencies, arts and culture organisations) in relation to opportunities, barriers, and challenges they face and their potential roles within the context of tourism planning and development. These organisations often perform a central role as keepers and nurturers of a region’s identity and traditions, often supplementing the state and private sectors in cultural intervention in traditional sun and sea destinations. Thus, they potentially make a valuable contribution to sustainable tourism development. However, there is a lack of research exploring third sector organisations, and in particular their interface with tourism. The purpose of this paper is to address this gap in the literature. Based on qualitative research amongst leaders from the third sector, the tourism industry and cultural leaders in the Algarve, Portugal, it considers the interface between the third sector and tourism from two perspectives: that of the third sector leaders regarding the tourism industry; and, the tourism sector leaders regarding the third sector’s potential role in tourism. Preliminary findings indicate that local third sector organisations should play a more active role in tourism, complementary to those played by the state and private sectors, their specific knowledge being perceived as an added value to the tourist experience. However, it is also evident that, as yet these organisations have no formally recognised role in tourism planning and development.